A Little Birthday Sparkle

Hi all!

Baby Brennen was 1 month old yesterday!  Pezza is QUITE pleased with being an Auntie of course!

How fun is it to dress babies in ridiculous outfits?!??!  Little monster behbeh!!!  Auntie Pez also babysits:

And then there is this face - HOW much trouble are those parents in with this kid...???

Ok enough with the baby shenanigans - ON with the crafting!

A good friend of mine had a birthday yesterday.  A group of us got together and took her out to lunch.  I love making cards but decided some time ago I would only make cards I will USE so none of the crazy embellished shenanigans I used to make!  Birthday cards & tags are tops on my list and this seemed like just the right moment for something quick & easy but with lots of glamour - Twinks to the rescue!  Not familiar with Twinks?  Twinks refers to Twinkling H2Os - little pots of hard-cake watercolor paint that packs loads of color (pigment) and tons of shimmer & sparkle (mica.)

I was pressed for time so I wanted to do something clean & simple (CAS) - I love the way watercolor washes look on cards, particularly the shimmer of Twinkling H2O watercolors.  I grabbed 2 of them and added a bit of water and let it sit while I made some coffee and threw in some laundry.  It takes a bit of time for the water to "soak into" the hard cakes and turn them into a painty consistency.  I like to use them when the wet paint is about the consistency of honey.

I cut a piece of watercolor paper to fit the front of my card.  If you use regular cardstock it is likely to warp a bit which does not look as good.  I chose this cute solid candle stamp and used a pencil to very lightly marked off a rectangle area that would fit the stamp.

I began by wetting my brush and making some swashes of water where I would be putting my color.  then I added the Twinks.  The thicker the paint the more color AND sparkle it will have.  Once it was completely dry I stamped my image on top.  The Twinks can be somewhat slick so be sure to let the ink dry for a few minutes.  A simple sentiment at the top diagonally balances it out just right.  I edged it with Tsukineko Brilliance ink.

I was inspired by the following challenges:

• Splitcoast Stampers - Color Challenge & CAS challenge
• Card Mania - Make It Sparkle

And now I am outta here - we have another snow day today and that means I have a super whiny child who doesn't understand why she can't spend 14 hours playing video games.  So I need to come up with ways to keep her busy.  We may start with packing up all her toys she is refusing to play with and see if that straightens her out a little! LOL!